The former long-standing head of Credit Suisse's private bank is reportedly interested in returning to finance. He reportedly has his eyes on the top job at troubled Swiss lender Raiffeisen.

Raiffeisen's current chairman Pascal Gantenbein is anything but certain of staying in a job, especially given the Swiss regulator's desire for a chairman with big bank experience (Gantenbein has spent his entire career in academia).

Behind the scenes, Swiss banker Hans-Ulrich Meister is being considered as a candidate to succeed Gantenbein as chairman of Raiffeisen, «Tages-Anzeiger» (in German) wrote on Thursday. The Swiss lender is grappling with the fallout from alleged criminal misdealings of its long-time former CEO, Pierin Vincenz.

Meister dropped out of banking in 2015, when he was unceremoniously sacked by Tidjane Thiam as part of the then-new Credit Suisse's restructuring of the bank. More recently, Meister made a name for himself as chairman of Implenia, where he recently dumped the construction company's long-standing CEO, Anton Affentranger.

Academia vs Banking

finews.com couldn't reach the former Credit Suisse top executive. Meister would represent a big name for Raiffeisen, which needs to patch up the damage wrought to its credibility and reputation following the Vincenz scandal.

Gantenbein was parachuted in four months ago but questions have already been raised over the permanence of his tenure. One reason is his indefatigable defense of Raiffeisen CEO Patrik Gisel, who worked closely alongside Vincenz as his deputy for 13 years and has been ensnared in supervisory aspects of the affair.

Swiss regulator Finma is demanding that Raiffeisen's board bulk up on banking expertise, and is keen to have board directors with experience at either UBS or Credit Suisse –Ganteinbein is a tenured professor.

«Mr. Switzerland»

Meister's name would be an obvious candidate for chairman's job: the 60-year-old Swiss native was «Mr. Switzerland» at both UBS and later Credit Suisse, where he advanced to head of the wider private banking arm in 2013. His folksy ways endeared him to the grassroots client base, particularly Swiss-based corporations and retail clients.

His record at Switzerland's second-largest bank was mixed though: he was in charge of Credit Suisse's private bank «regularizing» client assets, or ensuring that clients weren't hiding their money from the taxman. The Herculean task came after Meister had to stomach the only partly successful integration of boutique private bank Clariden Leu, decided by his predecessor.

Shut Out

Meister missed ambitious unit targets, and also struggled with downsizing in several key offshore markets. Late in 2015, he was blindsided when Thiam chose Iqbal Khan for the top wealth job. With investment banker Thomas Gottstein taking the top Swiss job, Thiam had shut Meister out at Credit Suisse.

At 60, he isn't yet too old for the Raiffeisen job, and his crisis years at Credit Suisse illustrate that he wouldn't shy away from forceful staffing decisions – something that might come in handy as Raiffeisen treads its way through the scandal.